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Jan 16, 2010

Allah

I thought of a more 'special' title but the more I thought about it the more I felt the simple title is more fitting. Before I start my first rambling of 2010, let me state some facts. I'm not a theologian or a historian. Nor am I a politician or have any political standing whatsoever. I am a Christian, with earlier years of Mother Mary & Lord Jesus on the cross, became a born again Christian when I 'encountered' Lord Jesus on cross literally. Now I more like moving into another stage of my spiritual journey.

When the issue of using the word 'Allah' raised (again) after the court judgement followed by the Ministry appeal to stop it and then followed by burning of a church, I, like most non-Muslim are incensed.

Why not? Why 'Allah' is strictly for Muslims? Why Malays reacted the way they reacted? Why burn a church? Why politicians (from both sides) are making this into a political issue? And why now?

So before I go trigger-happy-ing-shooting-down-&-stereotyping-Malay Muslims, I decided take a long bath, sit this one out with a long black coffee & see how the issues goes.

By the time I write this, ten churches had been reported vandalised. I've read, may I brag, more than fifty articles and postings, both local & international. Maybe hundreds of comments. And somehow came into a personal conclusion.

This issue amused me.

(And probably amused God too. Oh ye, silly humans.)

First of all, comes the theologians & historians insisting that 'Allah' had been used hundreds of years before Bill Gates was born. Yes, and as far as my non educational research goes, they are right.

Then there the comments that says Muslims in Malaysia will be confused and wrongly converted if 'Allah' are used in Christians publication. So...if a Muslim picked up 'The Herald' after attending a Sunday Mass, they would be confused? Come again? Or maybe somehow a pious Catholics leaves 'The Herald' on the train & a Muslims picks it up and ... wham ... conversion? I'm sorry, I don't think Muslims are dumb & that's a total insult to my Muslims friends.

Politicians seems to jump into the band wagon, some agree, some don't but everybody condemn the hurling of Molotov Cocktail that burn a church and nobody manage to catch the Mat Rempit who did the deed. Most 'memorable' was when a politician mentioned the 'Natrah' case. 'Natrah' was the case of a child raised by a Muslim family and then forced back to a culture that she was not familiar of. That was a sad affair that affected a woman entire life. She died Jul 2009.

But why associate this issue with Natrah? Any Muslims who became Catholics will be send to Holland? Duh.

And I found some pretty interesting quotes from international point of view...

"Because once this particular issue fades away, what will inevitably be left behind in the minds of foreign diplomats - and investors - will be another paragraph in the catalogue of niggling entries that mark Malaysia as a "risk", a country increasingly unable to reconcile its religious and racial communities, thanks in large part to tone-deaf government." ~ Al Jazeera

Ouch.

"The problem in Malaysia is not just a linguistic problem, the roots are much deeper. And let us stop regarding others are worse than us. The church attacks are not exclusive to Malaysia. And to be honest, in many other parts of the world, mosques are also attacked by those who think their religion is superior to others." ~ Jakarta Post

Agreed.

"Muslim groups claim that Christian use of a word so closely associated with Islam in Bibles and children's books could be aimed at winning converts." ~ BBC

But why would a Muslim reads Christian literature in the first place?

And some of the reasons that this issue amused me.

The vandalised churches are given donations & received supports from many agencies including the government to build better churches.

Now everybody knows that 'The Herald' existed. More publications.

I found out that more than 10,000 bibles has been confiscated. There's no such thing as Bahasa Malaysia translated Bible because it was banned and all 'Bahasa' Bibles came from Indonesia and more people will try to buy the 'Bahasa' Bible to check whether I'm right or wrong. Now, non-Muslim who never bothered about 'Allah' before start to call God 'Allah'. Or start a Facebook campaign supporting the use of 'Allah' for all Malaysians.

Now, Mat Rempit who never knew 'Allah' before start to learn about 'Allah'. Well, good for you. Just ditch the Molotov Cocktail, will ya? You'll burn in hell for desecrating a holy place, you know.

Muslims going around protecting churches.

Churches going around praying for Muslims who goes around protecting churches.

And I could go around and around about why this issue amused me but its 4 am. So I leave with just a little bit more.

7
comments
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hi there jaq...i totally agree with u..its not about religious actually...but it is more to senstivity of meleis...i am malays..but i have no problem with allah used by christians...i dunno why after the new milleneum this issue were higlighted...but really sad when there were provocation from muslim n christians side...allah tought us in bible or koran to be a good people...

Christian & Islam belong to Abrahamic religions in which they share common origin & values. In short we are praying to the same God! Only in Malaysia we can hear such thing as 'Christian God' & 'Islam God'. This show how dumb some of these so called 'religious people' can be, even our goverment can support that. Malaysia Boleh!!! It's amused to find that in the middle east both faith share the same word "Allah" to define God since the existence of Christianity. Even Imams ( except Malaysia of course ) around the world can accept the fact that "Allah" do not exclusive to Islam only. Maybe the problem lies in the habit of Muslim of islamising things & names. In Malaysian school we're taught about 'teknologi islam','makanan halal', 'fesyen islam', 'bangunan islam' etc etc you name it. If that's the case muslims should drive car or take aeroplane as there're developed by christians. Not to mention clothing. Luckily this stupid problem only happened in Malaysia. Most of my middle east colleagues find this issue funny. I only can assume that as long as Sarawak Oil continue flowing enriching these people you know who, they will continue to cari pasal.